Note: My family gets some credit for this idea. My younger siblings love to help me brainstorm and their ideas are good a lot of the time!
Prompt: Write about a time when Lucy missed when she threw her dagger. What or whom did she hit instead?
Lucy flung her dagger and watched as it sped through the air, flying high above the target, missing it completely. She sighed, turning to Oreius. "Will I ever hit the target?"
"In time, my Queen, in time," he replied. He scanned the ground beyond. "We had best go retrieve it."
"I don't see it anywhere," Lucy said, squinting to see better. She ran down toward the end of the field, the General following behind.
The two began searching for it, but it wasn't anywhere to be seen and after five minutes Lucy began to get a bit worried. As more and more time passed and as she looked over the same ground again and again, her face got tighter and more anxious. "Where could it be?" she exclaimed finally. "It can't have gone that far."
Oreius shook his head. "We'll find it, my Queen," he said. "It's here."
At least twenty minutes later Peter rounded the edge of the trees. "What's the matter, Lu?" he called, noting her worried manner.
"Oh, Peter!" she cried. "I lost my dagger! I threw it and now it's gone. I can't find it anywhere!"
"It'll be okay," he said, joining in the search. "It's got to be here somewhere."
After a while, Edmund came out. Peter quickly explained what had happened and Edmund immediately pointed out that it could have lodged itself in a tree.
"Edmund!" Peter cried. "That's genius! Why didn't I think of that? Come on, let's go look." The brothers began looking in the foliage, going round and round each trunk and peering in the branches, as well as poking in the bushes and plants round the base of each tree.
Presently, Susan also came out and saw with astonishment and curiosity the strange actions of her siblings and the General. The General was pawing in the leaves on the ground. Lucy was walking to and fro, staring very hard at the grass. Edmund was staring up into the trees whilst Peter – Peter was climbing the trees, something he had not done in years. "What on earth are you all doing?" Susan called as she came nearer.
"Lucy lost her dagger," Edmund said, leaving the shade of the trees. "No one can find it anywhere."
Susan's face bent in worry. "Oh no. Are you sure you've looked everywhere?"
"Yes," Lucy cried, coming to her. "We've looked all over the ground, under the leaves, everywhere!"
"And Peter and I looked in the trees," Edmund added. "Nothing."
Susan anxiously surveyed the area, looking for any possibility, any at all. "Could it have gone in a window?" she asked suddenly. "There are several windows open over there." She motioned to several open windows as she went over. The first window led into the castle's kitchen. "Excuse me," Susan addressed the young girl inside. "Have you seen a jeweled dagger?"
The girl's face showed amazement at being spoken to by the queen. "No, ma'am," she said, bobbing a curtsy. "I haven't, sure as I'm standing here."
"Thank you," Susan said, moving on to the next window. She proceeded to ask at all the windows, two of which led into different parts of the kitchen and one into a bedroom, but no one had seen a jeweled dagger.
Lucy was nearly in tears. It had been move than one and a half hours since the dagger was lost. Susan put an arm around Lucy. "It's okay, we'll find it. It'll be okay." She glanced at her brothers. "But we need to go in to the noon meal. We'll continue searching after that. And we'll ask some People to help us. The trees might have seen it, or the birds could help, and probably some of the other wood creatures." She hugged Lucy. "It'll be alright. We'll find it, I promise." Lucy nodded silently as Susan led the way inside.
After making sure everyone cleaned up a bit, Susan and the rest sat down in the smaller dining hall for the meal with only two others: General Oreius, who had consented to eat with them, and Mr. Tumnus, who was staying in the palace that week.
Mr. Tumnus was very sorry to hear that Lucy's dagger was missing and promised to do his very best to help find it after the meal. "I may be only a Faun," he said, "but I am good at finding things, especially in the woods."
Lucy thanked him with a sad smile and said very little for the beginning of the meal, idly watching the dishes being brought out. There was a soup, mixed veggies, several other small things, and finally a large platter with a silver lid. The server lifted the lid to reveal a perfectly roasted goose and -
Lucy gasped sharply, her hand flying up to cover her mouth. There, lodged square in the goose, was her dagger! The others saw it too, and it was as if the very room breathed a sigh of relief. The four, Tumnus, and Oreius were all immensely relived, and after a pause Lucy's siblings began chuckling.
Susan shook her head and laughed. "What a relief! I am so glad we found it, though I think we might want a new goose?"
"I say, Lu," Edmund quipped, you do know how to pick them, or, stab them, I should say."
Lucy giggled, finally getting over her astonishment. She plucked the dagger out of the goose. "Dagger-speared goose," she said. "Who would have thought?"
"Or who would have thought that our little sister would be catching dinner?" Peter joked. "I didn't know our goose could be killed twice."
"Ladies and gentlemen," Edmund announced pompously, "Our menu today consists of soup, vegetables, and doubly dead goose!"
Lucy giggled again. "At least we found it," Susan said. "But how did it get in the goose?"
After a small discussion, Tumnus came up with the best explanation. "I think," he said, "that what probably happened was that just as the cook turned to get the lid for the goose, Lucy's dagger lodged in it and, having no reason to examine the goose once more, the lid was put on and it was set aside till now." His suggestion seemed the most reasonable and without calling the cook in, which seemed unnecessary, that was the best they could do.
After the meal, the dagger was washed and polished and all was well. The dagger was found, no one was hurt, and, as Lucy put it, this was probably the only time in their lives that they would have goose, killed twice.